A special Roving Ranger edition: Ninety-second “A”
Between the ninety-first and ninety-second Roving Ranger there was break from the end of July until the beginning of November 2023. I have now curated a list of all things Tolkienian of this time span in case you missed out on them.
Life and Works
In an Amazon UK / Amazon Literary Partnership poll on the best opening lines in literature Tolkien’s Hobbit placed fourth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Events & Shows
Fantasy: Realms of Imagination, the British Library exhibition is on until February 25, 2024. Reviews: Guardian (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Reuters (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Telegraph (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Joseph Purdue has returned with another Tolkien-inspired musical: A Tale of Fellowship (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
(I wrote about his Unfolding Tales (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) extensively for my members here at Steady.)
The Lord of the Rings musical has a sold-out run - and more or less ‘saved’ the Watermill Theatre (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)’s future plans.
Colorado saw The Hobbit come alive on stage (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); impressions (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Facebook].
The No Strings Marionette Company (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) did The Hobbit as well at the Doctorow Centre of the Arts (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in the Catskill Mountains.
The Muse Theatre Company (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in Jefferson, MO, did The Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Scholarship and Fandom
Joseph Pearce Further In and Further Up: 50 Years with J.R.R. Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [European Conservative]
Harps in Tolkien: What Would They Sound Like? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
“The Long Defeat”: Reading Tolkien in the Time of Climate Change (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [TOR.com]
Tolkien's Incredible Map of Middle-Earth | Great Maps Explained (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Mapster, Youtube]
The rather lovely local tradition of well dressing has had a Tolkien-inspired addition (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Switzerland has certainly stepped up its Tolkien game with Tolkien stamps (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by John Howe.
Franchise and Merchandise
Payne & McKay (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) of LotR: Rings of Power have signed a deal with the Creative Artists Agency (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (CAA (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)) for representation. [Deadline]
“Fewer shows will be made for less money”: International producers on the future of scripted drama (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Screen Daily].
It is really sad to see Guillermo del Toro had another project ‘canceled’, this time a Star Wars movie on Jabba the Hutt (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Collider] If only he had done the Hobbit…
LotR: Gollum was such a disaster Steam player numbers in September often dropped to zero (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - and the peak never seemed to exceed ~500.
First Vin Diesel, now… How John Wick and Lord of the Rings Connect, According to a Director of Both Franchises (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Movieweb]
Peter Jackson is becoming a real estate mogul (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in New Zealand.
Legion M and others teamed up to bring the film “Return to the King” to US theatres for its 20th anniversary (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and to no surprise it was a success (not as originally written 25th).
Private Division and Weta Workshop announced a new cosy game, Tales of the Shire (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Sound engineer Jordan Rannells has composed - successfully supported via Kickstarter (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - and brought together soundscapes on The Lord of the Rings (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
The incredibly entertaining story of a fanfiction writer suing the Tolkien Estate and Amazon over infringing his copyrights with Rings of Power seems to have come to an even more entertaining close (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); the case has been dismissed (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Lord of the Rings soundtrack (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) voted nation’s favourite film music [Independent, UK]; full list with vote organiser Classic FM (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and a breakdown of the music itself (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
War of the Rohirrim (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has been postponed until December 2024.
Almost unbelievable but true: Zelda - Ocarina of Time - could have had a character called Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
The Embracer Group which has taken over Middle-earth Enterprises is partially funded by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); the $2 billion deal that fell through would have increased their interactions.
Why not gift a membership to the Tolkienist at Steady for Christmas?
Hullloooo ☺️
I’m very excited about this: you can now gift memberships to the Tolkienist’s Roving Ranger and beyond!
Share your support of me with friends and family—it’s very easy.
Some gift ideas:
Your favourite colleague (for better work chats)
Your clients
Your friend who lives abroad
Your cousin who shares your interest
And? No shipping costs + environmentally sustainable + no auto-renewal. Win win win.
How do gift memberships work?
✨ Purchase a gift membership directly on my page here:
(Öffnet in neuem Fenster)✨ The gift membership will begin immediately, on the day of purchase.
✨ An email will be sent to the recipient informing them about their new gift from you, and how to access it (no price tag listed, don’t worry).
✨ The gift membership does not auto-renew.
Find out more about gift memberships in this helpful FAQ (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
If you have further questions, please contact the lovely people at Steady who help me run my membership programme. You can reach them at: support@steadyhq.com (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
(Öffnet in neuem Fenster)All the best from Jena,
Marcel
Inter alia & Back in the day
Slate has delivered a truly decent write-up on one of the most important people for the modern literary fantasy and science fiction genres you may never have heard of - Lester del Rey (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (see also Wikipedia (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)).
You may not have heard of Glashammer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) either but the band has been playing ‘prog rock’ for thirty years, often with a Tolkien twist: “I’ve always said it’s not just ‘progressive anything’. It’s progressive rock and it needs to rock." How Glass Hammer turned it up to 11 with Skallagrim – Into The Breach” (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)[Louder]
Michael Gambon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) passed away. [Independent]
A rather fascinating piece with the Rolling Stone: How Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg Distort Reality to Sell Fantasy (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
George R.R. Martin and many other successful authors are suing ChatGPT (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) et al. [NY Post] |; also Forbes (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
The attempts at banning books in the US are continuing, see the example of Texas (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (and yes, The Lord of the Rings was among those titles.)
This might be one of the best Youtube videos I have ever seen:
https://youtu.be/5tmxfVWDgMM?si=0AW7Z4oM_ZrIMlhb (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)Lovely to see characters written by Tolkien continue to inspire: Rosario Dawson explains how Ahsoka was inspired by Gandalf (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Entertainment Weekly]
According to German law I have to infom you all links to enterprises, artists, products etc. are [unpaid advertisements.] Some purchase links may earn me a small commission from Blackwell's, the bookshop of my personal trust.
If you are interested in my other Tolkien-related work please have a look:
The Tolkienist Blog (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Facebook (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Twitter (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Instagram (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Bluesky (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
